Will iconic images recorded in the grooves of an ancient vase unite the Holy Land or rip it further apart?

THE VASE

A novel by Mark M. DeRobertis

Muhsin Muhabi is a Palestinian potter, descended from a long line of potters. His business is run from the same shop owned by his ancestors since the day his forebears moved to Nazareth. The region's conflict saw the death of his oldest son, and rogue terrorists are in the process of recruiting his youngest in their plot to assassinate the Pope and Israeli prime minister.

Professor Hiram Weiss is an art historian at Nazareth’s Bethel University. He is also a Shin Bet operative on special assignment. With the help of fellow agent, Captain Benny Mathias, he plans to destroy the gang responsible for the death of his wife and only child. He puts a bomb in the ancient vase he takes on loan from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.

Mary Levin, the charming assistant to the director of Shin Bet, has lost a husband and most of her extended family to recurring wars and never-ending terrorism. She dedicates her life to the preservation of Israel, but to whom will she dedicate her heart? The brilliant professor from Bethel University? Or the gallant captain who now leads Kidon?

Harvey Holmes, the Sherlock of Haunted Houses, is a Hollywood TV host whose reality show just flopped. When a Lebanese restaurant owner requests his ghost-hunting services, he believes the opportunity will resurrect his career. All he has to do is exorcise the ghosts that are haunting the restaurant. It happens to be located right across the street from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.




Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Gotta Wait, but use the time well

I'm in the midst of waiting for the release of Second Chance; a Football Story. Next week, I believe, it will be available. Which is just as well. Football season is underway, and football is everywhere. Colleges are playing, high schools are playing and even the Youth leagues are underway. Now with week one of the NFL imminent, my football story should be entering the market right as football fans are cheering their teams to victory.

In the meantime, I am still improving John Dunn; Heart of a Zulu. Just as I did for Second Chance, keep making it better while you have the time to do it. Just last night I found a small error. Not really an error, but it was a time goof. Well, which is an error. It was at the "Ultimatum Tree" on the Lower Drift of the Tugela River, John Dunn had just told his Zulu friends that it was too late to return to their capital at Ulundi, and to just stay at his place at eMangeti for the night because it was close by. But he wouldn't be with them. Instead he was going to ride to Durban.

Okay. So far so good. But then I had Dunn arriving in Durban by dusk. Which is a time goof. Durban was about 40 miles away from the Lower Drift, and on horseback that's a good twelve hour ride, probably more. So if it was already too late to travel to Ulundi, (which the Zulus did on foot by the way,) no way would Dunn make it to Durban by dusk on horseback. But it was an easy fix. I just had to change one word. I changed 'dusk' to 'morning'. Which means Dunn rode through the night, and made it to Durban by morning. Not writing the exact time he arrived in Durban leaves room for the sticklers to be content that he could have reached Durban by midmorning, late morning, whatever. It's no longer a time goof.

It's just an example how continued proofreading is always a good idea. Not only do you find and correct typos, but you catch time goofs like that and other similar errors that are easy enough to fix.  But if you don't find them, you can't fix them. So you take care of business. And you have a great book. Can't wait for both books to come out. Stay tuned.
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